MKRob Sports

“I’m pretty sure what we’re doing is unprecedented for a journalism program at a historically black university,” said Joe Ritchie, the Knight Chair in journalism at FAMU. “Few journalism students anywhere get to do a foreign reporting internship of any kind and to be at one of the biggest events on the planet is a huge deal.”

The students will be responsible for posting stories with video, audio and text as well as blogs, photo galleries and podcasts covering a range of topics related to the World Cup as well as to general social, economic and political issues about South Africa. Individuals can view their daily reports at http://www.famustu.net.

Ritchie made the connection with Shantou University while on a sabbatical leave in Asia a year ago. He helped arrange a semester abroad there this spring for another FAMU journalism student, Caryn Wilson, a senior from Charlotte, N.C. Wilson will be the upcoming editor-in-chief for The Famuan this fall.

“Shantou is an amazing place,” Ritchie said. “They teach many courses in English and have an amazing faculty which includes internationally known veteran journalists such as Peter Arnett, a former CNN correspondent, and Peter Herford, who was with CBS for years and worked closely with Walter Cronkite.”

Ritchie said he sees the project as an amazing opportunity for the FAMU students.